ASHEBORO, N.C. — You see something on social media, and it sounds too extreme to be true. That's where the VERIFY team comes in, tracking down the source of the information and verifying its legitimacy.
This inquiry is a 'wild' one about man versus beast (spoiler alert -- the animals prevail).
VERIFY QUESTION
Felicia Wade emailed the VERIFY team asking, "Can you please VERIFY this story? It sounds lovely, but I am doubtful."
Wade included a screen shot of an article with the headline, "Young gorillas seen dismantling poachers' traps for the first time."
Wow, that's pretty cool, if true. Let's VERIFY.
VERIFY SOURCES
- Dr. Richard Bergl - NC Zoo Director of Conservation
- National Geographic
VERIFY PROCESS
We traced Wade's picture to a nature threat called 'Gorilla Warfare' on the social media platform Reddit. The Reddit post (caution--profanity in the forum) is from last month, but the original story is from National Geographic nine years ago.
The author explained the incident happened in a Wildlife Reserve in Rwanda. Conservationists said two days after a poacher's snare killed a gorilla, they saw two young mountain gorillas find and destroy other traps in the forest.
National Geographic talked to the reserve's gorilla program coordinator, who called the behavior unprecedented. But, local conservationist Dr. Richard Bergl attests it really did happen.
"That is accurate. But, it's also very rare. As far as I'm aware, there are only two examples of apes of any kind dismantling traps like that -- the one incident with gorillas and then another set of times it was observed in Chimpanzees in the west African country of Guinea. So, yeah, it has been seen but very rarely," he explained.
He said primates are among nature's most intelligent animals. Just like lions rely on big teeth, and giraffes rely on long necks, gorillas rely on their superb intelligence to fight predators.
"It's perhaps not surprising that these animals have turned their intelligence to one of the threats they face in the wild, because they do, unfortunately, encounter these traps and snares relatively frequently," he explained.
With regard to the primates spotted removing traps, Bergl said, "(They) almost certainly would have seen members in their group caught in them with injured fingers and hands... They would definitely understand the consequences of encountering a trap like that," he said.
Again, these instances are rare, so humans play the biggest role in stopping poaching. That's why Bergl co-developed an anti-poaching program called "SMART" in 2011. It's a smart phone technology allowing game rangers to log, map and share evidence of poaching -- like snares, injured animals, broken fences and other illegal activity.
Bergl said 1,000 sites in 60 countries now use SMART, and the next focus will be on Polar Bears in the Arctic.
VERIFY CONCLUSION
The recirculating Reddit post and original article are true -- gorillas did outsmart the 'bad guys' trying to harm the species. Two mountain gorillas in Rwanda did, indeed, dismantle snares in 2012.
However, instances like this are few and far between. Illegal hunting is not. Poachers target gorillas for their meat and products like palm oil. Thankfully, Bergl said conservation efforts like SMART have helped the critically-endangered mountain gorilla start to rebound.
Do you have a VERIFY inquiry? Submit a post, screen shot or selfie video to Meghann Mollerus via:
Facebook: Meghann Mollerus News
E-mail: VERIFY@wfmy.com
Twitter: @MeghannMollerus